1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is concerned primarily with commercial and industrial burner/boilers and more specifically with a diagnostic annunciator adapted to provide operating and fault indications for the boiler.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The present invention is adapted for use with flame safeguard programmers which are commonly used in conjunction with commercial and industrial burner/boilers. These programmers perform a safeguard function by automatically shutting down the boiler in response to various faults in the system. Were the boiler not shut down, these faults could result in severe explosions. It is known by those skilled in the art that these programmers typically include an operating control, a water level control, a high limit control, a fuel selector switch, a fuel pressure switch, a combustion air switch, an atomizing air switch, a pilot/ignition contact, a main fuel contact, an alarm contact, and a blower motor contact.
When a failure or fault occurs in a conventional burner system, the flame safeguard programmer sometimes goes to a lockout condition. The lockout may be caused by one or more of the following conditions which may occur simultaneously: main fuel failure, pilot failure, combustion air failure, fuel pressure failure, atomizing air failure, and other interlock failures. In some cases, a particular type of failure will cause other types of failure to occur. For example, a combustion air failure might ultimately produce a main fuel failure and a pilot failure in a lockout condition.
In the past there has been no means for rapidly and effectively determining the specific failure which has caused the lockout condition. As a consequence, it has been difficult to ascertain what type of fault has produced the particular condition of the boiler. Valuable time has been wasted in determining the cause of the problem since it has not been immediately apparent. To compound the problem, a particular failure may be discovered and corrected. However, where this particular failure resulted due to earlier occuring failure, the primary cause of the lockout condition has remained to be corrected.